Implementation of the Yaounde Code of Conduct and Maritime Insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea

Abstract

The transnational character of maritime insecurity has made trans-border cooperation a sine qua non in the mitigation of illicit maritime activities the world over. The resource-laden Gulf of Guinea region has remained largely under-utilized due to the high incidence of piracy, sea banditry and other associated crimes within the maritime domain. This study investigated the interface between the implementation of the Yaoundé Code of Conduct of June 2013 and maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea. Utilizing the Marxist Political Economy paradigm, the study found that the repressive measures adopted in the Code of Conduct were implicated in the rising spate of piracy and armed robbery at sea within the region. Consequently, it recommended that the key stakeholders, especially the Signatories to the Code of Conduct, members of the ECOWAS, ECCAS, GGC, among others should fashion and implement an all-inclusive security policy that would address the structural and economic disarticulation in these littoral states which accounted for the origin and sustainment of the illicit maritime activities.

Keywords: Yaoundé, Code of Conduct, piracy, armed robbery, repressive measures, Marxist political economy